The spirit of the West lives large in San Francisco, a city of ideas and innovation and America reimagined. Dreamers of California dreams. Gold Rush and Summer of Love and Twitter IPO. San Francisco has always been a seven-by-seven mile peninsula of escape and possibility. It’s the city where Jack London honed his storytelling, where Joe DiMaggio played high school ball, where Etta James found her voice. Where thousands of African Americans migrated during World War II, escaping Jim Crow for new lives on a new coast. Where runaways hitchhiked. Where Chinese families fled. A fragrant city that the Spanish chose to name Yerba Buena. One wonders if there’s some magic, maybe a spell cast by space. And sea. The thousands of miles between there and here. Time given to shed old skins. To ditch the baggage and picture something new.Rebecca Solnit writes that San Francisco is “where America comes to reinvent itself.” This book is filled with such stories. Of tech engineers rewiring the world, Harvey Milk rewriting history, John Muir walking into the wild.
This is an enjoyable non-traditional guide to San Francisco. Although there are plenty of suggestions on where to go and what to see, it really shines in the interviews, essays, and historical articles from Jack London, Mark Twain, and others. The reader gets a varied look at the city and a sense of its history and character.
Not really a guide to the city - more like a few choice flavours to give you a sense of the culture.
This 'field guide' to San Francisco is divided into various sections:
'Essentials' and 'Bests' are standard city guide sections with useful phone numbers, fun facts, and the editors' choice places to eat, drink, peruse, entertain, and hire talent. Some of the facts here that set a tone for the rest of the book: grassroots culinary projects and social mobility.
The 'Almanac' isn't really an almanac so much as a scrapbook of notable events in the city's history told in the form of snippets from speeches and newspaper cuttings, lists, and encyclopedic entries on mundane, albeit unique, topics like foghorn schedules. Again I found the curation of these snippets fun and fascinating but the organization frustrating. Given this is entitled 'Almanac' at the very least it could be ordered chronologically.
The 'Maps' section is probably my least favourite as none of the maps are close to being either usable or imparting a sense of place/scale. The entries accompanying the maps were interesting but likely would have made more of an impact with more text. Rebecca Solnit's Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas is a much better resource to explore the city cartologically.
The 'Interviews' and 'Essays' section really give the strongest sense of the San Francisco, in particular the stark contrast between the stories of Ramona Mora - whose family is one of those slowly being forced out of their home by a new landlord, a familiar story in the city - and Doug Dalton who sits on the opposite page and bore witness to the Netscape, Yahoo, Twitter, and Instagram booms. Of the four essays the two standouts for me were the downward mobility of the fallen Santana drummer in Oye Como Va, and the metamorphosis of academic artist to industrial creative editor in Bubble.
Overall this guide reads something like a condensed version of a Rough Guide with all the practical information removed. If you're spending the week in San Francisco it might be fun to read while you're waiting for a table in the mission or the bus in Golden Gate Park. And as a temporary resident it will open your eyes to the real problems faced by the people who are still trying to maintain the lifestyles they've had for generations. San Francisco has many, many problems and if nothing else this is the first guide (field or travel) that has highlighted those alongside the positives.
Above is the Sutro baths, also mentioned in this book. If you're needing some nature but don't want to get too far out of the city - this is my pick.
I enjoyed the interviews and essays section of the book but the first parts seemed very disjointed because they jumped from topic to topic in an inexplicable fashion. This reads more like a magazine about SF not a travel guide. It could be a nice companion to a traditional travel guide to show you a different slice of life in the city.
This paints a bright and vivid portrait of a city I love. I read it before gifting it to a friend who was considering moving to the city at the time. It captured everything I love about the city and more.